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Friday, May 30, 2008

You wouldn't know it by our more recent posts, but I swear, we do eat meals and not just cakes and cupcakes. This Wilton course has created a (couple of) monster(s) and now I'm just looking for recipes that will allow me to use my new-found cake decorating skills.

The other part of shying away from cooking (in place of baking) is probably the warm weather. I'm trying to get out an enjoy the warm weather and everything that comes along with it.

You wouldn't believe the flack I got for asking my friend to hold the ice cream while taking a picture of it. Plus, a man walking by was so curious about my multiple photos of the ice cream, he asked "Is this your first ice cream of the year?", to which my friend responded "I think it's her first ice cream ever". Oh the taunting I go through to share my food with the blogging world.

As I mentioned a couple of posts ago, R and I went out for an anniversary dinner at Sterling Restaurant. It was our 7th anniversary. We basically consider the day we moved in together to be our anniversary because we pretty much became a couple when we committed to sharing a room together in a 3 bedroom flat in London. I was mid-way through my undergraduate degree and decided that I wanted to go off on my own and experience more of the world. R, who is from a smallish city a province away from me pretty much had the same idea. Things could have worked out terribly. We tried to safeguard against this by making a rule that no one could come home to a sock on the doorknob. Thankfully, this never became an issue and luckily, the living together thing stuck because 7 years later, we're together and happy. Ok...enough of the mushy stuff. Let's get to the food.

I'm always on the look out for a good steakhouse. Growing up Hy's was one of my favorite restaurants. Today, I'm less enthusiastic about them, although they do make a good steak. This time, I took the recommendation of a colleague and checked out a steakhouse across the river from me.

The decor was very nice with a bronze ceiling, basic table decor, and crisp linens

It's the first time I've been to a restaurant where they actually show you your piece of meat before they cook it. I'm not really sure what to look for in a good cut of meat - tips? I had the New York Strip, R had the Filet Mignon. I looked at the meat, noted that it did, in fact, look like meat and nodded my head to the waiter indicating that I was in support of him cooking said piece of meat.

We also both ordered a caeser salad, which I was very happy with.

It's probably the best presentation for a caesar salad that I've ever seen.

The steak was quite good, but I think that they were more true to the medium rare that I ordered than I had originally anticipated. I usually like my steak pink inside, but this one was more on the blue side inside. As long as I didn't look at the colour, it was still good.

We also ordered a half bottle of this wine in anticipation of our upcoming trip to France.

R left today to start an intensive course (as part of his MBA) in France and I'll be joining him in a couple of weeks. We'll be spending time in a couple of different areas but will mainly vacation in the Bordeaux and Dordogne region. If anyone has been there and has any suggestions, please please please pass them on!

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Apologies to Cakelaw for being so slow on recognizing the award she passed on to us.

This award is a special one and took a little thinking (that's always dangerous) because to say "you made my day" means that in some way, maybe we made a difference. We think that's a special thing and want to share it with others who have given us the same in kind. I know everybody says this but truly, there are so many who make our day in one way or another - either with some wisdom, some laughter or kindness or all of the above. This time round, here are our picks for this award:

1. Peter at Kolafagus who on a daily basis teaches us more about Greek food and culture in a way that is both a great learning and often a pretty good laugh.

2. Ben at What's Cooking always brings a smile to our faces. We've affectionately named him Mango Man for his ability to create such a variety of mango main ingredient dishes. Ben always has a thoughtful and kind thing to say on the blogs he visits and is generally an overall nice guy.

3. Brentwood Kitchen Shopper who keeps us posted on the latest and most interesting gadgets for the kitchen cook. If you're into aprons, she's got some pretty cool ones on the blog right now.

4. Next award goes to Recipe Girl. Her recipes all look so good. When visiting Giz a couple of weekends ago, I noticed that both she and I had printed off this recipe. Definitely check out her blog.

5. Last, but not least is Cooking with Anne. Anne's blog includes some great recipes and product reviews. I had to laugh when looking at Anne's blog the other day - she has a picture of her 7 kids looking happy. Most of the pictures of Actorboy and me required some sort of bribe or warning to get us to not fight with each other. That Anne can get all 7 of her kids to look happy in a picture is impressive.

I'm chuckling at your thoughts of my getting the kids all to smile. It's rare to have them all together and at once CLEAN, let alone smiling. If I recall correctly, they were threated with life and limb if they refused to do my bidding.

Since we refer to family members, here's a key to clarify who's who

R - Psychgrad's hubby. Is the cook responsible for many of the recipes but usually does not post himself (unless it is to complain about our food obsession or share a dish that he loves -- usually poutine).

E- Practicing her skills as ruler of the world (or her little brother, K).

K - Cool little bro -- biding his time until he's big enough to take down E.

BACFF

The members of BloggerAid-Changing the Face of Famine have published a cookbook where 100% of the proceeds target children and education through the World Food Programme called School Meals. Purchases can be made by clicking the cookbook cover above.